PC restarts randomly

[SiLeN]

So I have just upgraded my parents pc
New parts
corei3 540 CPU
MSI H55M-p31 motherboard
ddr3 1333 2gig RAM
win 7 ultimate 32bit

everything seemed fine after install but what a few hours of use it start to reboot without any warning messages

any ideas?

 

[Venomous]

what are the system temps?

besides the cpu fan are there any other fans in the chassis?

 

[SiLeN]

check the system in BIOS and it was hovering around 35
there's a case fan as well

if it's a heat issue surely it would have died while i was installing office, configuring their mails and other stuff? that took like almost 2 hours with no problems

 

[Gazza]

last time it happened to me it was the PSU... need over 500 watts

 

[kayvee]

Driver issue perhaps? Check you have all the latest drivers installed.

 

[SiLeN]

for an i3 with integrated graphics?

 

[SiLeN]

will drivers cause such instability?

 

[kayvee]

will drivers cause such instability?

It is possible, yes. But then so are some of the other suggestions here too. You need to eliminate them one by one.

I have seen it on an XP system that randomly used to crash once or maybe twice most days, some days it was fine. Also occurred while the PC was "doing nothing". Struggled to find the cause tried everything, eventually reformatted and upgraded to 7, and it never happened since which eliminates the hardware, so it had to be a software/driver incompatibility issue somewhere.

 

[SiLeN]

hmm...im leaning towards software as after i installed something last night it started happening. so formatted re-installed but this time it's doing it without that piece of software installed

 

[Romito]

Also check the Shutdown Temperature in the bios and Disable it.

 

[PsyWulf]

Power supplyyyyyyyy

 

[Spooner]

could be faulty hardware, PSU is usually the culprit but a faulty board might be to blame too since it is a new upgrade. you get them out the factory, very rare, but it happens. I got an asus rampage gene III brand new that did the same thing. Proccess of elimination unfortunately, time consuming but its your only option

 

[SiLeN]

if it is the power supply what wattage must i use

 

[SiLeN]

arrrggghhhh...shudve just bought them a mac

 

[Archer]

if it is the power supply what wattage must i use

For your setup even 400W is overkill. But you PSU may just be plain faulty.

 

[PsyWulf]

Do note,a Branded 400w and a noname 400w doth not provide the same output young sire

 

[SiLeN]

it worked fine before the upgrade
its 350w

 

[PsyWulf]

Multimeter/Voltage meter on the PSU would be your best test-bet,PC components can ordinarily only handle around a 10% variation in load

 

[SiLeN]

will give that a shot and see what happens

 

[Chevron]

Just get a decent power supply. You can get a corsair cx430watt for cheap.